The other partner
by Unjax
Summary: A one off story of my take on skullduggery's first and only other partner and his first and last mission with the skeleton detective. All OC's other than the skeleton himself


Casus Hope dropped down silently behind the hollow man and made a large "X" in it's back with his long, wicked knives. The hollow man quickly deflated as the noxious gas inside it's papery frame spilled out, stinging Casus' eyes. What was it about the bad guys and always hiring hollow men? Cheap labour, sure, but they were so inconvenient when they died.

Casus slipped to the wall, allowing himself to meld with the shadows. Casus was an adept, and his power was incredibly helpful in his line of work. Being able to shift light around ones-self is shockingly helpful as a detective. He could also temporarily suspend object in the air, not like an elemental, but just delay them from dropping. This was less helpful, Casus had to admit, but at the same time, being as wonderfully resourceful as he was, he made do. If he could throw fire, or shoot beams of energy out of his hands, it simply would not be fair.

Criminals, after all, had to have a chance to do something wrong so they could be arrested. Perhaps it was unkind to make them think they had a fighting chance, but then again, he was talking about murderers and extremists who wanted to return evil gods to this dimension.

Silvyn Damascus was one such man. An assassin in the service of Mevolent during the war. Word was that, by the end of the war, Damascus was responsible for half the deaths of everyone fighting with the sanctuaries. Of course that wasn't nearly true. Silvyn Damascus slit a couple of throats, but it was Serpine, Vengeous and Vile that did the heavy lifting. Vile in particular. Vile.

Casus hated Vile. No one knew where Vile had gone, just one day he vanished. Most people were glad, happy that he never showed up again. Casus for one disagreed. He would revel in the chance to have a chat with that monstrosity. He could still see those shadows, stringing her up, puncturing her a thousand times, but she didn't die. Vile wouldn't let her, he could do that. And Casus had watched, unable to do anything, as he ended her.

Casus shuddered, forcing himself to focus. It was difficult sometimes, fighting back the anger. Not many people understood the rage that seethed and boiled just below the skin of him, in fact, Casus had only met one person who seemed to understand.

Skulduggery Pleasant, once the famous general, then dead, then returned. He led the dead men during the war, and since then he had cooled his heels a bit. Prime detective of the sanctuary. They were partners, Pleasant and Hope. It had a nice little ring to it.

Pleasant's family had been murdered by Nafarious Serpine, so much the same story as Casus's. It was fate, it seemed, that the two had met. Skulduggery and Casus got along famously, or as famously as two damaged sorcerers can. They had grown rather close over the years, or Casus had fancied it so anyhow. Between their sarcastic remarks and the unmistakable facial expressions of a skull, it was rather difficult to tell at times. At the least, Casus was as close as anyone alive was to the famous skeleton detective.

He hoped Skulduggery was doing his half of the job.

Casus was supposed to sneak into Damscus' castle and recover the Crucible, supposedly a device that had the power to drain the energy from any magical source it encountered. Through their incredible deductions (admittedly most of them had been Skulduggery's) they had uncovered the truth of Silvyn Damascus's plan.

The crucible was to be used as a storage center of sorts, keeping all the energy it absorbed until enough was recovered. From the rumors they had heard, he was fueling it with the power of sorcerers. There had been a number of sorcerers who had mysteriously disappeared recently. It hadn't taken much to figure out the common denominator. Once Damascus had all the energy he would ever need at his fingertips, he would use it to elevate himself beyond the power of any sorcerer alive. Neither of the detectives were certain what would happen afterwards, Damascus had been discreet, but they both knew that they couldn't let him elevate his power that much. Bringing the faceless ones back would hardly be a challenge after that. Not that Casus believed in the faceless ones. He was just worried that Damascus would become another Mevolent. They just couldn't deal with that so soon after the war had ended.

He was broken from his revery when he rounded a corner and nearly ran into a hollow man. He threw himself to the side, not overly gracefully, making plenty of noise. He stilled his breathing, holding his breath as the hollow man looked right at him. Seeing nothing, it quickly turned its attention back to patrolling the long dark corridors.

Casus cursed himself silently. Skulduggery would have rapped him over his head for his idiocy. Casus continued along the corridor, attentive, making sure not to bump into any hollow men. He was glad that no one was willing to associate with a follower of the dark gods so soon, as he surely would have been caught already if he had. As it were, he strode confidently through the hallways, walking by the witless paper gas bags that were Damascus's army. How could a villain ever hope to beat the likes of him and the Skeleton Detective with gas?

In all honesty though, Casus was feeling nervous. This was his first real mission, facing odds that had ramifications for the entire world. The cocky, suave swagger was a show. No one was watching, but Casus still felt that if he portrayed himself as confident, he might start to fool himself.

He looked around and realized that he must be near the middle of the castle, as he was in a junction with tunnels fanning out in every direction. Skulduggery had told him that Damascus was intelligent, but showy. Casus chose the biggest tunnel and followed it. He was not disappointed, and soon found himself in a large room.

Books lined shelves around the edges of a massive cathedral like room. In the center was a marble podium, upon which rested a glowing, bright white sphere.

The Crucible.

It was disappointingly small. Sure, it was supposed to be small enough that Casus could bring it back out with him, but still. It couldn't have been larger than a marble. That was supposed to be a threat to the world? Casus was indeed, thoroughly disappointed. And it wasn't well guarded. It was lying there. In the middle of a podium. How had Damascus ever managed to become so successful in the war?

Casus decided this would be a walk in the park. He strode up to the altar and placed his hand on the glowing marble. There was a large flash, and pain immediately lanced through Casus' body. He screamed and fell to the ground, arching his back in agony. The white hot pain shot threw his body, and the world started to go black.

Casus jolted awake suddenly, gasping for breath. It felt like he had just been thrown from a thousand feet into a river. He felt cold. It had seeped into the very marrow of his bones, and he was chilled to the core. He was shaking, and he looked at his hands. They were turning blue.

"Knowing my reputation, one might think you wouldn't walk so blatantly into that trap." came a voice from behind Casus. He whipped around, and found himself staring at Silvyn Damascus. The man was wearing a fine suit that covered his muscular body perfectly. He stood about six feet tall, ink black hair, sharp blue eyes and a wicked grin. The kind that looked like knives. "Seriously, I had so many auxiliary traps set up, because I knew this one was too obvious. Offering up exactly what you wanted on a silver platter. The enchanted chains in the bookcases, the sigils in the floor at intervals throughout the room." He tutted slightly, shaking his head. "Honestly, this world needs a better class of hero. Of course there is one. Mr. Pleasant, he's here isn't he?"

Casus couldn't reply, he just lay on the ground, shivering. Silvyn's grin turned into a scowl and he spat at Casus. "Pathetic, that's what you are. Dogging after him. All you ever were for him was a weakness. Now you'll serve my purpose simply by existing. Rejoice, you'll be a hero in the new age ushered in by the true gods."

Somewhere behind Silvyn, someone cleared his throat. Then a silky voice spoke. "I do hope I'm not interrupting, but Silvyn, would you please step away from my protegee? Please forgive his ignorance, he's new." The skeleton detective stepped out of the shadows, his hat crooked at that slight angle, his finely pressed suit showing just how skinny he was.

"I was wondering when you'd show yourself." Silvyn said, turning slowly to face the detective as a smile spread across his face once more. "Though by now I would presume you've deactivated my traps. Shame. A good amount of time went into them." The detective didn't respond. He simply cocked his head and regarded his adversary. The two stood there for a stretch of time, sizing each other up. Finally Skullduggery broke the silence.

"Well, where is it?" Confused, Casus looked up at the altar. The glowing marble had disappeared. But that was impossible, he had _felt_ it, grabbed it. Where could it be? But his mind was fuzzy, unable to process what had happened. Silvyn gave a low chuckle.

"Oh it's so perfect!" he laughed a little. "You see the crucible is not particularly effective until it has absorbed energy. It's essentially a black hole, simply consuming energy around it indefinitely. So to use the crucible outright would be..."

"Suicide." Skullduggery finished, his voice low, lost in thought.

"Exactly. So there's no way to bind oneself with the crucible. It would suck all the energy out of them, until there was nothing but dust." Silvyn continued, his voice controlled, but there was an edge of excitement. "When it was created, the scientists working on it were afraid that someone like yours truly would try to take advantage of it. So they programmed into its nature that it would suck the energy out of anything that tried to use it. It was the perfect catch. As usual, however, there is a loophole.

"The crucible binds itself to whoever tries to use it. As such, anyone who tried to use it to attain power would die. But I don't intend on using the crucible anymore. Since the end of the war I've been feeding it energy. There's enough in there to burn brighter than the sun. You see, the crucible itself is impossible to use. The energy, however is not. All I needed was a vessel,someone who I could use to separate the energy from the crucible. No one special, I could have picked anyone from any street that had magic, but why do that, when I could kill two birds with one stone?" He ended ambiguously. But Skullduggery never missed a beat.

"You knew I was after you." the detective said in his silky voice, "If you picked any random person, I could easily dispose of it. However, the chosen vessel being my partner, you don't think I could kill him." Realization finally gripped Casus. He, being the vessel, would bring the world's downfall because the skeleton wouldn't kill him. His merely existing would destroy the world. Silvyn smiled.

"The essence of the crucible will stay in your partner, he will live, painfully of course, but all the energy will be siphoned out of him, into me. You wouldn't kill an innocent person would you? At least not anymore." This caused a very long and painful silence. Casus was studying the detective. Skullduggery had never killed anyone in cold blood that hadn't deserved it. The forces of mevolent and criminals were the only ones.

"S-skul-duggery? Wh-Wha does he mean-n-n?" Casus stuttered out, his teeth chattering as he forced himself to move. But Skullduggery didn't reply. The expected sarcastic reply never came. Nothing did. Nothing moved. Skullduggery stood perfectly and eerily still. Skullduggery always had a calm air about him, perfectly composed, and very still. This was different. This felt like the thousands of electrons rushing through a cloud right before a lightning strike. No movement. No sound. But the world felt like it was about to snap.

"You didn't think I knew? Even the other generals weren't sure were they? But I knew, I knew that no one else had that amount of hate and violence in them. That affinity with power..." Silvyn trailed off for a second, "They didn't, but I did. I always knew. And when you rejoined the other side, I knew for certain. WIthout a doubt. I saw the darkness in you. You hide in even now don't you? You only use magic when you have to, trying to forget. But I know. And I can see him inside you now. Just hearing me speak of him, its angering you enough to almost let go isn't it?"

Skullduggery snapped into movement faster than Casus had ever seen. In a split second he had drawn his revolver, cocked it and had it firmly pressed against the forehead of Damascus.

"Tut-tut," Silvyn said, unfazed, "if you pull that trigger, where do you think all the energy goes? Your friend will melt from the inside out." Casus' heart began beating faster, the chill was still spreading, it felt like he was in the coldest meat freezer in the world, but an idea struck him.

"Sk-s-skulldug-gery, the crucible..." Casus was gasping. "W-w-would-d sta-sta-still be in me... W-w-we could use it aft-t-ter he absorbs the power..." It was desperate, but it was the only way Casus could think of getting out the other side.

"The dog has a point," Silvyn said, all the while the revolver sat unwavering on his head, "I'd never let you get near me of course, but is that hope enough for you? Are you clever enough to figure it out? How to kill me after all this is done? Come now..." and then he uttered five syllables that shattered the world.

"my dear..

Lord...

Vile."

The world seemed to tilt under Casus. Pleasant was... Vile? No it was a trick. But.. it made sense. Skullduggery turned his head to look at his partner.

"I'm sorry Hope, I shouldn't have ever let you come with me on an investigation. Far too dangerous. This is the only way though."

Casus was too confused to comprehend everything that was going on. His head was whirling with the ramifications. Why was Skullduggery apologizing. He hadn't done anything, at least not yet. Not yet. Casus looked sharply at his partner's finger over the trigger of the revolver. It was squeezing ever so slightly.

"Skullduggery... No, we can figure this out, we'd have the crucible..."

"He's right, we'd never get close enough to use it." Skullduggery said, his voice a clear peal through the air, signaling the approach of Casus' death.

"You wouldn't," Silvyn sneered, "You never could. He's done nothing."

Casus was begging now, "Skullduggery, there's other ways I'm sure. We could find a way to stop him."

The world stood still for a moment. Silvyn sneering defiantly, Skulldugger had become eerily still again, and Casus sobbing and pleading. Then it shattered.

_CRACK_

The gun shot echoed through the room, and Silvyn crumpled to the floor. Casus stared.

"No." He said numbly in disbelief. "No... No. no. .nonononononono..." Casus murmured over and over as he realized what this meant. Finally steeling himself he looked at his partner.

"How could you?" He was starting to feel it now. All that energy that had been syphoned out of him gradually, rushing back in suddenly. It was coming in too fast. He could feel his extremities again. He didn't feel cold anymore. But then he started heating up.

Skullduggery slowly strode over and stood over Casus looking down. A sight somehow so shockingly familiar. He looked like Vile had that fateful night, his poise, his figure, and that eerie calm.

"Oh god, it was you.." Casus said. It was true. Skullduggery Pleasant was Vile.

"I'm sorry, this was the only way. I'm truly sorry, for this and for her. For all of them." His figure slumped slightly, defeated, and Casus's skin began to prickle, as though a thousand hot needles wer poking him all over. "I've never forgiven myself for them, and I'll never forgive myself for this. I am well and truly sorry." And then the skeleton detective righted himself, turned sharply, and began striding out of the castle.

Anger began to boil up in Casus. It was VILE. Walking away from his was the beast he had hated for so long. The monster he had hunted for years. Skullduggery had killed his wife. Casus had trusted him, and now Skullduggery had killed him too. As his flesh began to melt and his hair caught fire, he shouted after Skullduggery. Every volatile word he could find. Every shred of hatred.

"THERE WILL BE A RECKONING FOR YOU VILE. FOR ALL THAT YOU'VE DONE. A THOUSAND MISFORTUNES WILL BEFALL YOU. AND WHEN YOU DIE, ILL BE WATCHING FROM WHATEVER HELL THERE IS. YOUR DAY WILL COME, AND YOU WILL SUFFER WORSE THAN ALL OF US..." The screaming continued becoming more and more violent, the threats escalating.

Skullduggery paused at the door and looked back at his ex-partner, now writhing and screeching inaudibly, cursing his name.

"I hope you're right."

Then the detective left, and never looked back.


End file.
